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Major-league teams have two rosters: the 26-man roster and the 40-man roster. The 26-man roster defines those players who can actually play for the big club: the men in the dugout and the bullpen. The 40-man roster is more inclusive: it subsumes the 26-man but also includes selected players in the minor-league system. During the season, the club can send men off the 26-man roster and down to somewhere in the minors, subject to the rules on “options”, which I will not go into here (follow the link for details). When a man is optioned down, the club then has an opening on the 26-man, and can call up anyone on the 40-man roster.
If the club wants to play a man not on the 40-man roster, they have to first clear a spot there by taking someone off the 40-man, usually by way of DFA (“Designated For Assignment”), which I also won’t elaborate on here (but, again, you can follow the link for details).
The sting in the tail here is what is called the “Rule 5 Draft” (the reference is to the official rules of baseball). In that draft, any other club can draft any Rule-5-eligible player not on his team’s 40-man roster. The drafting team has to pay the source club $100,000 and has to keep the draftee on their 26-man roster for the entire coming year (there is an exception for draftees who have to be placed on the 60-Day Injured List: they only need to have been on the drafting team’s 26-man roster for at least 90 days prior to the IL assignment). The criteria that determine eligibility for being drafted have to do with minor-league service time, and are complicated.
On this page, I list the Giants players who are eligible for the 2026 Rule 5 draft, my proposed 26-man roster, and discuss who the other 14 might be.
In the lists below, the men are in alphabetical order by last name.
The Rule-5 Eligibles
The list below is as assembled by Roger Munter (at the link, scroll down slightly to get to the list), who operates the very, very informative and useful substack
There R Giants, which I much recommend.
During the season, players on the 60-Day IL are nominally on the 40-man roster, but are not counted toward the 40-man limit. But come December, that protection vanishes. The current 40-man roster is at its limit, 40 men. But the current 60-Day IL comprises a full 17 men! That means that from the 57 men (40 + 17), the Giants need to remove at least 17 names before they even get round to deciding who to add that is not yet on the 40-man (and for every one of those added, someone now on the 40-man will have to go).
Here are the 17 from the 60-Day that will have to be assessed. A + sign means I propose the man for the 2027 26-man roster.
Here, I list the 57-man pool that needs to be carved down to 40 men. I call it “Phase 1” because it does not yet consider men not in that 57-man pool who might or should be protected. I have separated the 57 into two groups: keep on the 40-man as protection; and omit from the 40-man and chance it.
The ones I would keep at this Phase number 38. That just leaves 2 slots open. Obviously, there will be a lot more than 2 other men justly needing protection (that list is farther below). Remember that a man on the 40-man roster cannot be removed from it without being exposed to waivers; thus, it is effectively impossible to remove anyone from the 40-man unless the club is sure they wouldn’t mind losing him to another club. With that in mind, here are my Phase 1 “keeper” suggestions.
(Those on the proposed 26-man list have an asterisk after their name.)
Scott Bandura *
Tristan Beck
Victor Bericoto *
Hayden Birdsong *
José Buttó *
Drew Cavanaugh *
Jonah Cox *
Bo Davidson *
Rafael Devers *
Bryce Eldridge *
Jason Foley
Nate Furman *
Matt Gage *
Drew Gilbert *
Brett Harris
Trent Harris *
Sam Hentges *
Turner Hill
Yunior Marté *
Marcelo Mayer *
Trevor McDonald
Anthony Molina
Joel Peguero *
César Perdomo *
Jesús Rodríguez *
Randy Rodríguez *
Landen Roupp
Braxton Roxby
Reiver Sanmartin
Casey Schmitt *
Dylan Smith *
Daniel Susac *
Blade Tidwell
Logan Webb *
Carson Whisenhunt
Rowan Wick
Matt Wilkinson *
Keaton Winn *
And here are the ones I would omit even at this Phase; they number 21.
Willy Adames: trade away
Osleivis Basabe: omit
Harrison Bader: contract cancellation?
JT Brubaker: leaving via free agency
Matt Chapman: trade away
Duncan Davitt: omit
Camilo Doval: omit
Adrian Houser: trade away
Andrew Knizner: omit
Christian Koss: omit
Joel Kuhnel: omit
Jung Hoo Lee: trade away
Seth Lonsway: omit
Grant McCray: omit
Miguel Mendez: omit
Zach Morgan: omit
Carson Seymour: omit
Ryan Walker: omit
Shay Whitcomb: omit
The “omit” non-keepers can be kept in the minors, traded, or simply non-tendered.
Here it gets quite subjective. I eagerly await Roger’s latest discussions of whom the team might or should protect by placing them on the 40-man. These are some he has recommended in the past, plus one or two of my own thought. There are 22 on this list with only 2 open slots from Phase 1. Obviously, then, for any men off this list past 2, someone on the Phase 1 38-man list would have to be DFA’ed for each such man being added. This is not fun, and the front office will doubtless be buying a lot of antacid in the weeks to come.
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